small business | BIG Impact Podcast

We lift up those who are lifting up the world.

Questio is profoundly committed to supporting small Impact/purpose-driven businesses. We believe that...

the survival of upcoming generations of humans and all other species depends on what we do now.

small business is an immensely powerful tool to effect change, and possibly our greatest hope for a positive future.

In this time of unprecedented intersecting challenges (ranging from local to global), our world needs everyone to take responsibility to help co-create "the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible" (Charles Eisenstein).

These are stories of challenge and success from small businesses that are a force for good.

There is a growing community of entrepreneurs that find inspiration, meaning and success by using business as a force for good. Many of them identify as impact, social ventures, or mission-driven business owners and they are out to build a better future for us all... and make a healthy living doing it. This podcast is a collection of interviews with small business owners sharing their stories of hard-won lessons, relatable inspiration and actionable insights.

As the Founder and CEO of Leverage Lab, Sara Blenkhorn dedicates her time and energy to the intersection of business and sustainability. She helps companies achieve B Corp certification, honing their ethical business practices and baking them into the DNA of their companies. With 20 years of experience in the field, Sara helps businesses capitalize on declaring, measuring and monitoring their impact. Her passion for engaging people has gifted her a vast network and an uncanny ability to lead productive workshops; finding ways of working across silos, and building collaborations that are in service to a wider agenda. Over the last five years, Sara has had the pleasure of working with: The City of Vancouver, the Government of Alberta, Lululemon, H&M, UBC and over a dozen others. In this episode, Sara shares how she and others worked hard to establish a project, only to have its growth cut short due to factors outside their control. Listen in to discover the powerful lessons she gained on her way to Finding Fertile Ground

Vichi Jagannathan is the Co-Founder of the Rural Opportunity Institute (ROI). She started her career as a high school science teacher in North Carolina, before spending two years expanding Microsoft’s TEALS computer science education program into California. Then she worked with the design firm IDEO to develop “Real Talk,” a mobile sex education app with over 10,000 downloads. After graduating from Yale School of Management with her MBA in 2017, she co-founded Rural Opportunity Institute (ROI) with Seth Saeugling. ROI builds the capacity of rural communities to support people’s healing from generational trauma to achieve health, safety, connection, and self-determination. To date, they have reached over 15K people in those communities with training and support, and have big plans to scale their efforts. The success of ROI quickly launched Vichi and her co-founder into the position of having staff. They found that running the business demanded very different skills than those needed to get it started. Listen to Vichi share her experience of learning how to run a business “like a boss.”